For anyone still interested in the following (devs & users alike):
1. Permanently fixing the config launcher.
2. Launching without steam (DRM-free), and possible to redistribute like this.
First of here is a list of libraries that the game requires, mb_warband_linux and mbw_config_linux alike.
libaudio.so.2 >> libaudio.so.2.4 (does not exist in steam-runtime, only required by config)
libGLEW.so.1.10 >> libGLEW.1.10.0
libpng12.so.0 >> libpng12.so.0.46.0 (only required by config)
libcurl-gnutls.so.4 >> libcurl-gnutls.so.0.4.2
libidn.so.11 >> libidn.so.11.6.6
libgnutls.so.26 >> libgnutls.so.26.21.8
libgcrypt.so.11 >> libgcrypt.so.11.7.0
librtmp.so.0
libtasn1.so.3 >> libtasn1.so.3.1.12
The format of the list is: "library looked for" >> (link that points to) "actual version from steam-runtime, as of 2014-09-06"
Now to solve everything at this time the user will need to copy these libraries and/or their symbolic links in the game directory. What counts is the name of the file to the left. This can easiest be obtained from official repos of the distro, extract from debian packages, or easiest copy it from the steam-runtime ($HOME/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime).
Now what the developers actually have to do is fixing some issues with the game and the steam-runtime. I am not a developer, but if everything is done right you should be able to use the steam-runtime run.sh with the game shell script/binary. While the game uses the steam-runtime from the Steam GUI, it does not work if you do it manually. Other games I have tested do work with run.sh.
Secondly, the only library used that does not exist in the steam-runtime is libaudio2 (libaudio.so.2). The reason for this is that this is an obsolete library. The only reason it is required is because the version of libQT you use is compiled with support for it (even if you do not need it). See this old bug report from the Debian project for more information: EDIT: Nope, sorry you will have to email about it because the forum will not allow it... Please, developers at least ask me about it.
I am not a developer, but I know this can be solved by recompiling the QT libs without support for this library. I do not know for sure, but you should not require libaudio2 unless the distro uses NAS as their sound server. Pretty much every distro uses PulseAudio today. Also, the config app does not even use audio and the game runs without it. Speaks for itself.
If you manually add all dynamic libraries as I described above the game should work independently on every modern Linux system. This can be used to distribute it from your site.
Other than that I cannot complain with my Arch Linux/nVidia/Intel system. Runs mostly great, being your first port and all.
Mac users I cannot help, since I find that system really complicated and do not care for Apple. The developers should easily be able to fix this between both though.
